Ricardo then suddenly remembered that he had to go get something for Giselle while he was out. So he climbed back down the ladder and hid in the shadows. He reemerged as a normal man, wearing some Hawaiian like shirt, denim jeans, and New Balance sneakers. He walked towards the other side of the border, and made his way into the city via taxi.

IC:

"I'm sure you have Mr. Prime Minister. It is utmost that your safety come first, which is why they have sent me here. See, it's not all just about the power that one possess that makes him special. No, it's the will to fight that makes them special."

OOC: Given the length of time it's been since Half-Dragon even logged on to BZP, I'm going to slog on and see if I can't break the curse of the Coalition's Michigan Base plot. Everyone who's joined seems to have evaporated.

Honestly, though, we've been in Michigan for nine months. The last time we had a plot last that long, we were fighting off that Manchine wannabe Kumata just posted a drawing of.

IC: (Loadstone)

Once Prism had been taken care of, the group lined up in front of the elevator shaft. The motion-activated hallway light barely shone into its depths, and a deep carpet of black was all they could see. Loadstone generated some electricity around his hand, but it didn't help much. Dissipating it, he summoned his magnaboard and stepped off into the darkness. He motioned for Epsilon to join him, and then he spoke up.

"Skyra, why don't you go first?" he suggested. "Your powers are most likely to disrupt everyone else's decent. We'll follow you, and Ultionis can cover the rear and come last." Skyra nodded, stepping confidently into the shaft. He dropped a few feet before bouncing slightly on a cushion of air. Loadstone backed the magnaboard into the wall of the shaft to steady it, and Skyra descended into the darkness.

Loadstone balled his hand, then tossed a shimmering ball of electricity down after Skyra, providing him with a source of light. When he had passed the opening for the next floor down, Loadstone swung the magnaboard around and followed with a shrug and a wave to Ultionis.

The shaft was dark, cold, and mind-numbingly plain as they descended. Loadstone counted off the openings as he went, and when they had reached Level 3 the openings were lit by electric lights in the corridor beyond - this far down into the base, attempts at subterfuge had apparently been deemed unnecessary. With permanent lighting glowing out from the last few openings, the group finished their decent and alighted on the opening of Level 2. (Level 1 was blocked by the lift, and any attempt to squeeze around it or cut through it would have alerted the Coalition to their presence.)

Now in more comfortably paneled and lit corridors, they made a few last-minute preparations and slowly crept out into the hallway...

Up ahead was a V-shaped fork in the corridor. Both ways were sealed with a featureless metal door. A light blinked on above the left door and it slid open automatically for a Sharkman to stagger backwards through it, followed by X-Calibur’s feet, then the rest of his body as he delivered a flying dropkick to the creature. As soon as he hit the ground he rolled over, bringing up his crackling Energy Machete to slice the leg off of another of the mutants. He got up, raising a blaster he’d apparently stolen from the Sharkmen and fired a volley into the one he’d dropkicked - just enough to end its life. As yet more Sharkmen spilled out into the corridor X-Calibur readied his stance to swing the Energy Machete again. Then his helmet angled toward the group of heroes.

“… it‘s a little unorthodox,” he called. “Usually the cavalry is supposed to come to you, not the other way around!” He resumed fighting. There were seven live Sharkmen in the corridor now. Some broke away to charge the group with slavering fangs and open claws, but most converged on X-Calibur. Beneath the noise of the battle there was another sound, too. A sort of droning, electric buzz. From the left path in the fork a man rocketed into the fray. He was clad in dark green armour, with two rows of yellow spikes trailing down his back and four transparent wings beating in a blur at his sides, the source of the buzzing noise. The Dragonfly emblem on his chest gave away his alias.

“Well, this is convenient! Now you can all die together!” Dragonfly extended an arm toward the group of heroes and a wrist-mounted weapon launched a volley of laser fire…

Ricardo entered the Cidaoi (Local supermarket similar to Walmart, and I missed spelled it.) and got himself a basket. He went up an escalator, and went to the produce department.

IC:

As they made their way to their destination, two heavy trucks came in front of them. It was obvious that they are with White Lightning, since they are not shooting at them. Then after a few yards the trucks stopped.

[color=rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;]OOC: [font="Arial, 'sans-serif';"]Heeeeey[/color], while their appearance may be similar Technax wasn't actually inspired by Manchine any! Besides, all that bucket of bolts did was blow up his own base then go into hiding... at least Technax caused global collateral damage and untold casualties before failing. He's way more infamous [/font]

[color=rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;]That drawing is amazing though Kumata, as per usual. The design of his arm-cannon is a tiny bit comical though, simply because I can see him very easily blowing a good portion of his own fingers off I do especially love that there seems to be an opening in his chest that is suspiciously Crystal shaped…[/color]

[color=rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;]IC: [/color][color=rgb(0,0,255);][font="Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;"]"So Mentor thinks I'm so bad I belong in here then...."[/color][/font][color=rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;] Silver sighed dejectedly as he walked. All the signs were pointing to a "we'd like to keep you here for observation, so just live out the rest of your days hooked up to some gizmo" verdict coming from the good doctor, a diagnosis that may as well be "sorry we got nothing" as far as he was concerned. At least the latter he could do whatever he wanted for his remaining months. [/color][color=rgb(0,0,255);][font="Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;"]"Just what do you want me to do exactly?"[/color][/font][font="Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;"] the mutant asked, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible. Esp's holographic avatar meanwhile had hovered itself over to somewhere she could interface with the local network smoothly, starting to upload her data to the system while the other more organic members of the group were in discussion.[/font]

[font="Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10.5pt;"]OOC: By the way, the "force cell" that Darkness is in... any idea what kind of design that's like? Is he cuffed while inside it? What little was mentioned makes me think he's literally been thrown inside a sphere of energy, like some kind of Anti-Villian hamster ball [/font]

OOC: We could start our own cyborg fan war. I yield; they're both equally awesome original characters.

IC: (Loadstone)

As the other Heroes took cover, Loadstone raised his magnaboard as a shield to absorb Dragonfly's laser fire. Electricity crackled along his arms, and he lashed out with lethal voltage toward the approaching Sharkmen, lancing a few stray bolts in Dragonfly's general direction to keep him on his toes.

OOC: Kumata, should I PM The Zytrix and A Billion Cats, or have you done that already? I'd hate to bug 'em if you've already done it...

Also, sorry for the filler IC; writers' block hits you at what seems like the worst times...

OOC: I figured Technax was so assured of his own victory that he'd have built a special slot for the crystal into his armour, for the 'inevitable' day when he obtained it.

If you could PM them that'd be great Rumpelstiltskin; I haven't recently but I have in the past, and I don't want to be the only one here who sends nagging PMs

[color=#8b4513;]IC - Gadgeteer @ General Warner's house[/color]

Be silent.

With a mental command Viktor amplified the strength of his armour's audio receptors. He leaned in and, gently touching the dial of the safe, twisted it, listening to the metallic rattle of the tumblers - rendered as loud as jingling tin cans to his ears - and began to identify the correct combination.

The only risk here was that any regular sound would be magnified, potentially stunning and/or deafening Viktor. With any luck General Warner's cat wouldn't pounce on them, or some other such nuisance.

Dragonfly jerked through the air in random movements, much like a real dragonfly's flight pattern, evading the electric bolts with ease. His next volley of laser fire was aimed at the ceiling - with a shatter and a sparkle the lights went out. One had to assume his visor granted night-vision capabilities. From within the darkness came the sound of more laser fire...

[color=#ff8c00;][IC: Miami, FL][/color] The mid-day sun was casting down bright shafts of light through the glass facade of the bank, and the loud humming of the air conditioning unit told the teller that it was about to break again. He sighed, wiping beads of sweat off his brow. He didn't know how many times he'd told his boss they needed to replace the old thing. They just didn't have the money for it, his boss would say; the teller wanted to ask just what sort of bank didn't have money, but he didn't because he wanted to keep his job.The line moved up, and a woman in a bright yellow sundress approached the bank window. She had a large bag slung over her arm, her short reddish-orange hair almost covered by her large, floppy hat and a pair of almost comically oversized sunglasses took up most of her face. The teller grumbled under his breath; bank policy forbade people from wearing hats or shades or anything like that which could conceal their face from the security cameras. But in a town like this no one ever bothered, and his boss would yell at him about it even though there was nothing he could do to get them to listen."Welcome to BankSun, how may I help you today?" the old man asked, with the sort of forced helpfulness that completely failed to conceal the weariness in his voice.The woman leaned in close, flashing the teller a bright smile. She lowered her shades just enough to fix a pair of vibrant green eyes on him."Hi, there! If it's not enough trouble, I'd like to make a withdrawal."She reached into her bag, and slid a small object through the teller's window. The old man picked up and looked at in confusion. It looked like a small silver box with a series of blinking lights on the side, a small cable connecting to it that looked like it was supposed to connect to a computer."I... I-I'm sorry... I don't understand what-""Oh, don't worry about it. It's a really complicated science thing, you don't need to know what it's called, but what it does is hack into all your accounts and transfer out all their money, bounce it between enough dummy accounts to baffle anyone trying to trace it, then deposits it into my own offshore account. If you could just plug it into your computers, that'd just be peachy."The teller simply stared blankly at the woman, holding the device at arms length as if unsure what to do with it."Oh... I'm sorry! Did I forgot to mention? This is a robbery. That's probably what I should have opened with..."Tensing slightly, the teller placed the device down on the counter. As inconspicuously as he could, he slipped his hand beneath his desk, feeling around for the little red button that would alert the police of a robbery. Suddenly a sharp sting shot through his arm; the teller jerked it back in pain, a few wasps buzzing out from under his desk and flitting across the room."Aww, were you trying to pull the old 'silent alarm' trick on me?" asked the women in the same voice one would use on a misbehaving toddler. "Just don't try it again, and I won't let the next one to sting you be poisonous."She suddenly turned away from the window, facing the other people gathered in the bank."...And the same goes for all of you, too!" she shouted. "You know what happens to people who want to play hero? They either wear garish tights, or they wind up dead! Both fates all of you should want to avoid!"A security guard rose from his chair in the far corner of the room and approached the woman, his hand reaching down towards the holster on his hip."Ma'am... I think it'd be best for everyone if you came with me, please."The woman glanced over her shoulder at the approaching guard and flashed a mad grin."You're right, it probably would be for the best," she said. "Heeeeeey, speaking of bees..."She swung around, hurling her bag into the air. A horrifying buzzzzzzzz filled the air, and bursting forth from the bag came a swarm of very angry bees. The guard screamed, dropping his gun and swatting in desperation as they stung at his face. The other patrons ran shrieking for the exit or ducked down low as the swarm circled over them. The woman was enveloped in the cloud of swarming insects; when they dissipated the sundress and hat were gone, replaced by a sleek black-and-yellow supersuit and a pair of small, orange sunglasses. Hivemind let out a delighted cackle as bees swarmed around the bank, covering the handles of the doors to discourage anyone from leaving."Alright, now if I were one of you schmucks, I wouldn't move!! Bees tend to take that as a sign of aggression, y'know! Now me, I've got business to take care of! Try anything clever, you'll be up to your eyeballs in insects, got it?"[For Science!]

By the way, the "force cell" that Darkness is in... any idea what kind of design that's like? Is he cuffed while inside it? What little was mentioned makes me think he's literally been thrown inside a sphere of energy, like some kind of Anti-Villian hamster ball

The tumblers clicked into place correctly, and Gadgeteer was rewarded with the clink of the lock releasing. Less rewarding was the ratcheting rasp of a gun being cocked. Especially since, with his receptors turned up, the noise was a ear-drum bursting boom

OOC: Before I post as Epsilon, can I get a quick recap of everything that I missed in regards to the plot he's involved in?

OOC: As of your last post, Ultionis, Loadstone, Epsilon, and Skyra were leaving Siren at the security center, planning on making their way down to the next opening of the elevator shaft and using that as a shortcut to the bottom of the base. On the way, they ran into Prism, a teenage member of the Coalition, leading a group of Sharkmen. They killed off the Sharkmen, captured Prism, and interrogated him. It turns out that this is an old Coalition base that had been abandoned until the Coalition regrouped after the invasion. The facility is run by a woman called 'Triple-Helix,' but we don't know her powers yet. She stays in the labs on the lowest level, which is where we're now heading. Also, about two days ago, a mystery 'shipment' was teleported into the labs - conveniently timed right when Danielle Thomas was kidnapped, leading us to believe that Danielle might be in the facility.

After knocking Prism out, we descended through the Elevator shaft to Level 2, where we met back up with X-Calibur, who was fending off a horde of Sharkmen. A Coalition member named Dragonfly also entered the fray, and he just shot out the lights.

Everything you need to know about the ongoing battle is in Kumata's last two posts. I'll let him recap you on Centurion and the Robo Robbers plot, as I haven't been following that one closely.

IC: (Loadstone)

Dragonfly may have shot out the lights, but the corridor wasn't entirely dark. The electricity crackling along Loadstone's arms gave off enough glow to light up the area around him and cast everything else in dim, flickering shadows, those hardly enough to see by. X-Calibur's energy machete gave off a much fainter red glow, but it helped to pinpoint silhouettes that crossed in front of it.

Loadstone, still shielding himself with his magnaboard, cupped his hands and lobbed balls of electricity into the air, attempting to brighten the hall enough for everyone to see.

OOC: All anyone needs to know regarding the Robo-Robbers plot is that they've been defeated and the heroes are carting said robbers to the Police waiting outside the bank. In fact the plot's all but over so you can go your separate ways now if you wish.

And CoKK's posts seem to have become a rare and treasured resource these days...

The glow of X-Calibur's Energy Machete vanished momentarily; there was a gurgle, then the glow reappeared as the sound of a Sharkman collapsing wetly emanated from its location.

Dragonfly, meanwhile, weaved between the balls of electricity, sticking as best he could to the darkest parts of the corridor. He aimed his laser fire at Epsilon, since the hero was currently in darkness and thus shouldn't be able to see the attack coming.

[color=#8b4513;]IC - Gadgeteer @ General Warner's house[/color]

Having his armoured battle suit's CPU directly linked to his mind had a number of advantages - in this case, the relevant one was that often a mere flicker of Viktor's thought was enough to trigger a command. So stunned was he by the noise that he was ready to fall over, but beyond the flood of pain signals there was an urge to stay upright, and that was enough for the armour's leg joints to lock, keeping Viktor on his feet. Additionally the severe desire to not hear such a loud noise again was enough to reduce the audio receptors back to their regular volume.

Nevertheless this did nothing to stop him from feeling stunned, and whilst his senses reeled and his ears ached he would be utterly useless for the next minute at least. Functionally, Lone was on his own...

[color=#006400;]IC: Epsilon I hate the dark. Bad things happen in the dark.Epsilon's arm-blades unsheathed themselves. He held them up defensively. Suddenly, several laser rounds struck his torso, prompting a surprised "ack!" from somewhere in the back of his throat and sending him stumbling into the dirt. He took a deep breath and shifted his skin and hair to blend in with the shadows. Hopefully the camouflage would at least buy him some time to heal.[/color]

[OOC] Yeah, I freely admit my posting here has fallen a bit on the wayside. Blame college for taking up most of my time, and independent writing projects for taking up the rest. Also, I'm sure Netflix figures into that somehow. I am trying to see if I can't break back into this RPG; I'd say if anyone wants to interact with Hivemind to feel free, but best as I can tell, everyone is pretty firmly tied up in their own plots at the moment, so... yeah.

And in the interest of getting back into this, I think I'm probably going to retire Mystic from PC status (cause, to be honest, she was kind of boring and didn't do a lot), and start out a new (well, new in the sense they weren't a PC before) character:Real Name: Miles AndersonAlias: The TechnicianAppearance: A youthful and energetic teen, with blonde hair and green eyes. Wears a bright green supersuit trimmed with white and gold patterns, a white labcoat with gold cuffs, and a green visor. Right hand covered by a small silver gauntlet.Power: None, relies on his technological prowess. The Technician's arsenal at present consists of:

-- His visor, equipped with identification software linked with League and police databases, and a built-in comm system.

-- The Power Glove, a small, lightweight metal gauntlet worn on his right hand. Possesses a targeting sensor that allows him to remotely send commands to the Cricket and call it too him, along with what Miles insists upon referring to as his "near-death ray" - a small laser weapon that delivers unpleasant but typically nonlethal damage.

-- The Cricket, a small mechsuit, colored green, white, and gold, standing at aprox. 3.3 meters tall. Armaments consist of one variable-strength laser cannon mounted on the left arm, a bladed pincer-claw mounted on the right, and two missile pods containing four missiles each. Possesses flight capabilities thanks to a set of thrusters on the mechsuit's back and stabilizing thrusters in the legs, but its maneuverability in the air is limited due to the suit's bulkiness.

-- Goldbug, Miles' robotic assistant and companion. One of his earliest creations, it has the appearance of a mechanical beetle, covered in polished gold plating, about 25 cm. long. Houses a simple AI system that Miles has tinkered with over the years to the point it can successfully imitate conversation with few errors. Goldbug possesses flight capabilities and a small 'stinger' laser beam, but her primary tool is the set of sensory equipment mounted in his pincers, which help analyze a threat and provide Miles with tactical information. Attaches to compartment on the back of the Cricket for storage and to recharge her power cells.

Allegiance: League of SalvationArea: New York CityBio: Miles Anderson comes from a long line of scientists; he is in fact the ninth in his family to bear the mantle of The Technician. Unfortunately, the science practiced by The Technicians that came before him was strictly of the “mad” variety; a lineage of supervillains stretching back even before the word “supervillain” was thought up. Despite the wishes of his father that he continue with the family business, Miles secretly wished to put his mechanical knowledge to a more practical use. With the help of a superhero named Fade, Miles was persuaded to help bring his father to justice, and shortly thereafter decided his talents would be best applied in service of the League.Miles had developed quite a few creations under his father's tutelage, but insisted they all be either destroyed or placed into storage, wishing instead to start over fresh. The only exception to this was his robotic companion Goldbug, who for most of his adolescent life was close to his only friend and companion. The scope of his creations has been smaller since doing so, due to the limits on what the League is willing to fund (and secretly, Miles suspects they are reluctant to allow an almost-supervillain to build something big enough to level a city block), but he has managed to put together a mech-suit he feels is sufficient towards the task of fighting evildoers. With the aid of the League, Miles hopes he can help to balance out the wrong the previous Technicians have caused. But with eight generations of evil looming over him, this task might be beyond even Miles' capabilities...

---

[color=#ff8c00;][IC: Miami, FL][/color] Dislodging into a flurry of wasps, Hivemind poured through the slot in the teller's window, reforming herself together on the other side. Picking up the device from where the teller had dropped it, she slunk over to a nearby computer and plugged it into the USB slot. With a few taps on the keyboard a window popped up, displaying a series of progress bars slowly filling as they went through the banks servers.A familar sound caught Hivemind's ear; the wail of police sirens drawing closer. Glancing out the window, she could see several police cars forming a perimeter outside the bank's entrance. Hivemind sighed. The cops themselves weren't likely to be trouble; unless someone got a swelled head and tried to play a hero, they would probably just hang back once they realized they were dealing with a metahuman. They simply just didn't get payed enough to deal with that sort of thing.But they would inevitably run crying to the League once they saw how sorely outclassed they were, and that was when things were likely to go pear-shaped for the whole operation. Spotting the teller trying to crawl away, Hivemind buzzed over to him, grabbing him by the collar and slamming him against a desk."Did you forget what I told you about silent alarms?" she asked in a low hiss. "Well, now we get to play a fun little game. I like to call it 'lets see how many cicadas can crawl into your ears before the noise drives you completely insane'..."A sudden DING! broke Hivemind's train of thought; she dropped the man to the floor and glanced at the computer. All the progress bars were filled up with green, the transfer completed. Hivemind smiled, ripping the device from the computer and throwing it to the floor. It crumpled into broken plastic and crushed circuitry under her boot as she stepped over it, making her way towards the exit. She paused at the door, turning back towards the terrified teller struggling to pull himself off the floor."Looks like you're saved by the bell, old man," she said. "By the way, I hope you understand that whole cicada thing wasn't personal. I mean, if I let you off easy, what would the rest of the hostages think? So... no hard feelings, then? Cool."Hivemind strode out of the bank, throwing the double doors open wide. She took a few steps towards the wall of cops standing in front of her, her swarm buzzing around her. Shotguns and pistols raised cautiously, just in case she got too close. Some suit with a bullhorn was shouting something about getting down on the ground with her hands over her head, but naturally Hivemind wasn't bothering to listen to him."Y'know, you guys... I'm not sure you appreciate just what an amazing world we live in," she said. A few of the police looked puzzled, unsure why the bank robber was suddenly trying to talk casual with them, but Hivemind paid them no mind. "I mean, just like five years ago, if I wanted to rob this bank, I'd have had to take it all out in bags with cartoon dollar signs on them. I'd have to carry that all out myself, which I don't know if you know, but that's hard to do as a giant cloud of insects."Hivemind grinned, her swarm starting to buzz louder."But everything's online now; if I wanna steal some money, I can just do it digitally. Which, most relevant to you, means I'm unencumbered enough to do THIS!"Hivemind burst forth into her swarm form, buzzing between cop cars. A few officers who lacked the common sense to take cover from the stinging insects opened fire; the shock from the gunshots stunned or killed the few bugs unfortunate enough to get in the crossfire, but it wasn't enough to stop Hivemind. The swarm buzzed past them, rising high up into the air and buzzing across the Miami skyline.[For Science!]

IC: Lone's suspicions were right and it was indeed the General. He was a surprisingly short man, probably due to the natural shrinkage of age, but what he lacked in height he made up in the rifle he was aiming at Lone's head. And the enormous moustache like a small persian cat on his upper lip. But mostly the rifle.

"I'm pretty sure we both know I can't take the two of you," Warner said, "But I can give you a real hard time about it."

[color=#006400;][IC: League HQ, New York City, NY][/color] "...Gyroscopic stabilizers operating at peak efficiency, wireless command link response time less than .25 seconds... hmmm, stress levels on left knee servo eight percent above the norm... I'll have to adjust that next time I'm in the lab..."Miles tapped away at the screen of his gauntlet, and in response the Cricket came lumbering out onto the runway of the League HQ's hanger. No jets were scheduled to arrive at the moment; timing was perfect for a test flight on the Cricket. The cockpit opened with a hiss of sliding pistons, and Miles pulled himself up and into his seat. Buckling himself in, Miles started flipping a series of switches, prepping the mechsuit for flight."[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<Sir, this seems ill advised,>[/font]" a feminine voice with just an edge of mechanical roughness about it spoke through Miles' comm. "[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<The Cricket's thruster system is still relatively untested, after all.>[/font]""Correct me if I'm wrong, Goldie, but isn't the purpose of this run, in fact, to test precisely that?" asked Miles, the glass dome of the cockpit sliding down into place in front of him."[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<But there's absolutely no reason you need to be in the cockpit for this,>[/font]" Goldbug replied. "[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<We could run more computer simulations, or you could fly the suit by remote, or literally anything else->[/font]""Bo-ring! Besides, if there is a problem with the engines, I can diagnose it much more effectively in here than from on the ground," said Miles. "Come on, Gee-Bee! Do I have to program a sense of adventure into you?""[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<Perish the thought, sir. But if you die in a fiery explosion... I told you so.>[/font]"Chuckling, Miles grabbed hold of the controls and carefully guided the Cricket into position. With the flip of one last switch, the pair of engines on the mech's back roared to life, slowly rising up above the floor of the hanger. Retrorockets in the legs kicked in, keeping the Cricket in balance at it hovered."Alright, all systems operating within tolerable limits..." Miles muttered as he looked over the info being fed into his visor. "How about we take this baby out for a spin?"Miles pushed down on the throttle and the Cricket rocketed forwards, thrusters spewing twin trains of fire behind it. The mechsuit roared out of the hanger, quickly gaining altitude as it rose into the sky over New York."[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<Flight system seems to be performing adequately without any major snafus,>[/font]" Goldbug informed Miles. "[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<I advise we test out a few basic flight maneuvers, then return back to League Headquarters.>[/font]""Nah, I wanna see how far I can push these thrusters," Miles said, forcing the Cricket to climb up higher over the city. "Better to figure out the bugs now, rather than when we've got some angry supervillain on our tail.""[font="'courier new', courier, monospace;"]<Miles, I think that's a really bad idea->[/font]"The Cricket was rising steadily over the city. Down below, people, cars, even skyscrapers were fading away into tiny, indistinct dots. Inside the cockpit, Miles could feel the mech's frame starting to shake, both from the force of the rockets on its back and the sheer force of the wind at this altitude."Don't worry, when we start getting warning signs on the dials, I'll take us back down," said Miles. "I just need to know how much punishment this system can take-"Suddenly and without warning, the left thruster began to cut in and out. The flames trailing out the engine behind the Cricket began to sputter, then, abruptly, cut out completely."Oh sh-" was all Miles managed to mutter before the Cricket spun out in midair, dropping towards the city below in an uncontrolled tailspin.[For Science!]

Like his flight patterns, Dragonfly's targeting was erratic. As soon as Epsilon managed to conceal himself from view, he whirled and aimed his fire at X-Calibur. This forced the hero to raise his Energy Machete to block in the incoming lasers, which fizzled out of existence as soon as they struck the blade's crackling aura. Unfortunately the blade was X-Calibur's only weapon, and being forced to use it defensively left him vulnerable to the snarling Sharkmen that rounded on him...

[color=#800000;]"Colonel, don't make this hard. We just want the files. Thats all."[/color] Lone kept his voice calm, not wanting to scare the colonel, or have him fire. it would make getting out a lot harder.

0

War...war never changes.

We crawl, on our knees for you,under, a sky no longer blue, we sweat, all day long for you.

But we sow, seeds to see us though,cause sometimes dreams just don't come true, we wait, to reap what we are due.

IC: "Huh. Caving into the shark witch? Giving in to terrorism? You people have no right calling yourself heroes." The General nevertheless lowered the gun. "You want the files? Fine. You've got the safe open, might as well take a look, see what you'd be giving the fish."

Lone took the paper files from the safe, flicking through them to get a quick overview. His eyes caught the name 'Baron Carchas' and he recalled Hexas asking about him. The villain was some sort of a super-genius who's brain had been boosted after a quirk of his biology reacted with pollutants in the environment, giving him super-intelligence and minor psychic powers. He was also a shark. A great white, to be specific. The files noted how he'd successfully avoided being put in Confinement after successfully arguing that his powers were the only thing granting him preternatural long life and that nullifying them would kill him. So he'd been placed in more normal prisons, only to break out time and time again. Warner had got sick of it and constructed his own prison, diverting government funds to pay for it, to hold the super-shark. Then had him secretly transported there after hijacking a regular prison transport and gone about systematically eliminating or corrupting any record of Carchas' whereabouts. After the first time worked so well he did it again. And again, and again, abducting supervillains and whisking them off to prisons designed specifically to hold them. A villain who gained power from contact with the earth was kept in a pocket dimension, a powerful telekinetic in a high-gravity vault where everything was too heavy for her to move, Carchas himself wa somewhere in the Sahara ensuring he'd dehydrate fast if he ever tried getting out...

But it hadn't stopped at supervillains. Some ordinary folks had been shipped off to jail, either for trumped up charges or under a false identity forced upon them, so they wouldn't talk after finding out about the imprisonment or fraud.

Viktor's ears hadn't quite stopped throbbing, but the pain was reducing so that he could focus on ordinary sounds again.

"...[color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]see what you'd be giving the fish."[/color]

As Lone turned to the safe and brought out the files, Viktor saw it was safe to assume the General wouldn't be fighting them just yet. He turned and peered over Lone's shoulder at the files, giving a mental command for his optical sensors to record what he saw.

He tried to force himself to focus. Once again he had to be mindful of his actions in this scenario; try to behave how a hero might. In all honesty he didn't care about what the General had been doing - in fact he thought the idea of building personalised prisons for these supervillains a sensible effort. He couldn't understand why the General had felt the need to construct it all in secret, rather than try to officially propose the idea, but he didn't want to ask for fear of sounding like he advocated the idea. Would a hero be opposed to this sort of thing, he wondered?

He felt a little more confident about their situation though. They had the General in a position of weakness. Now that Gadgeteer had seen the files, he could wirelessly transmit them to Carapace at any time. That would expose the General's illegal activities, but it wouldn't stop Lady Hexas. Viktor thought and thought, carefully constructing what he turned and said to the General next:

"[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]General, we are all heroes. Our goals are the same. Our methods may differ but at the end of the day we wish to keep the world safe from supervillains. Lady Hexas tried to convince us that you were different, but looking at these files I see you have only done what you believed to be necessary. We did what we believed to be necessary - giving in to Hexas' demands - because we were not strong enough to fight her without risking the death of innocents.[/font]

[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]Lady Hexas sent us here to find out where Baron Carchas is being kept. In two days we are to meet with her and help her break the Baron free. I suggest you let us go along with this. Let us travel with Hexas to the Baron's prison. In the meantime, you will have prepared a black ops team; the best men you can assemble on short notice. When we arrive at the prison, we will work together to trap Hexas. A double-cross...[/font]"

OOC: Sorry, Kumata; wasn't waiting on you, been a bit preoccupied working on the Wiki.

IC: (Loadstone)

Loadstone threw his arms upwards, towards the floating balls of electricity. More electricity coursed from his hands, feeding into the flickering orbs until the buildup exploded outward in an electrical field, crackling along the ceiling and upper walls. Bolts of electricity crisscrossed with labyrinthine precision, forming a low-voltage electric quilt that left Dragonfly no room to maneuver anywhere but underneath it. Gritting his teeth, he began to lower the field, forcing Dragonfly lower and lower...

OOC: Just stab him and take his blood or whatever it is you Doctors do, I'm no expert I'm just here to be confused and disoriented! I do have like, no idea what kind of tests she wants though I'd prefer to get Silver out and about ASAP. We need to go see Photon and mouth off at him a little

IC: [color=rgb(0,0,255);]"But to do these tests you'd need me to.... do something, correct?" [/color]Silver's new aggression was rapidly building, Esp's hologram interjecting to detail information to Dr Ostermann and hold her attention before things could get out of hand. Grumbling something unpleasant the mutated psychic shifted away to a far wall to try and cool down. It was clear he really didn't want to be here, especially if his current condition was terminal... what an utter waste of his remaining days this would be. Trapped in some lab to be "helped"... more like used a lab rat to try and prevent other people suffering the same fate in the future, didn't matter what happened to him. [color=rgb(0,0,255);]If anyone cared they would've found me... helped me...[/color]

"Whatever Dr. Ostermann needs you to do, you should do it if it will help her develop a cure," said Sluice, trying to reassure Silver. "Just think: it'll be worth it in the long run."

[color=#8b4513;]IC - Gadgeteer @ General Warner's house[/color]

"[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]The only other thing we will require from you then is a secure channel of contact,[/font]" said Gadgeteer. "[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]Phone, email; anything will do. Our team of heroes will contact you to let you know when we are about to begin the false breakout. We will also let you know exactly who our team consists of - you will pass this information onto your black ops team so that they know who is on their side.[/font]" Gadgeteer didn't want to detail the roster of their team to the General just yet; it had changed so much over the past twenty-four hours there was every likelihood it would change again.

Dragonfly flitted back and forth, trying to spot a gap in the electrical blanket that lowered towards him. He launched a volley of laser fire into it and with a crackling fizzle several of the links were negated - but these sections were quickly restored by Loadstone's will. Whilst the villain was distracted trying to find a way out, the Sharkmen engaged the other heroes. Seeing what Loadstone was doing they worked to protect him from the hybrids so that he could focus on maintaining the quilt.

It was at the last moment - just as Dragonfly was forced to land in order to stay low enough beneath the descending hazard - that a Sharkman caught X-Calibur with a blow from one of its muscled arms, sending the hero toppling onto the floor just beneath the electrical field...

[color=#800000;]"this, this is the best plan for villain containment I've ever seen. One for each villina that plays to their weakness is the best way to keep them from coming back up."[/color] Lone had a tone of amazement in his voice. [color=#800000;]"Why didn't you try to get more public funding? I have a feeling a lot of people would get behind this. at least those who've fought these kind of people."[/color]

0

War...war never changes.

We crawl, on our knees for you,under, a sky no longer blue, we sweat, all day long for you.

But we sow, seeds to see us though,cause sometimes dreams just don't come true, we wait, to reap what we are due.

IC: The first step was a CAT scan of Silver's brain. Mainly to see if it worked like a human's. If the brain was predominantly human then it was a good chance the rest of the body did as well, which would be encouraging.

Next they needed DNA samples. Drawing blood wasn't too bad, just a quick poke in the arm, but getting the bone marrow samples was a little more...pokey. Nothing beyond the pain threshold of a super-powered crime fighter though.

"That should do for now," said Ostermann, "We'll need to analyse those before taking any next steps. I'd appreciate it if you stuck around during that time, but as you're a volunteer I have no authority to actually stop you if you do want to leave. Just know I'll be very very disappointed."

IC: "I tried getting funding," Warner said, "Tried pleading to Senators, telling them a tough look on crime would help them get re-elected. They didn't like the idea of imprisonment without trial though. Said it was unconstitutional. As if the scum deserved to be protected by the very laws they were breaking. So I had to do it my way."

IC: Silver had taken the CAT scan relatively well... it wasn't exactly hard. The blood test did not go so well, the psychic always having had an aversion to needles and the memories of Technax's methods of torture still fresh in his mind. But the bone-marrow was almost a disaster, Sluice forced to step in to talk Silver down before he tried to gut Dr. Ostermann with a wristblade as Technax's aura-created visage superimposed itself over the doctor. One of Technax's methods had evidently been similar and caused him to regress, only the aquakinetic's assurances keeping him from falling out of reality.... once the sample was taken however he did cause a huge gash in the wall of the room, using it as an outlet for his pain more than anything as the aura around the doctor faded away.

[color=rgb(0,0,255);]"Remaining here would be.... bad... for everyone..." [/color]Silver was not confident staying would do anything but make him more agitated and unstable, and it was clear he didn't want to be here. Apart from the pain all the area did was remind him how grave his situation was.

[color=rgb(0,128,0);]"Since my travel time across the planet is relatively low, we should be able to return quickly when you make any developments Doctor. But I must agree that his remaining here will only cause..... problems. After all he has been through we should not stress him more than necessary" [/color]Esp's reasoning was sound, especially after the earlier display and Silver's degenerating mood. He'd been fighting supervillians in sloppy conditions at best for the last month, putting him into clinic for supers would hardly seem like a huge improvement in his book... it could even make his mental degradation worse from stress.

OOC: I had a blood test recently... it wasn't enjoyable. I don't even want to imagine the feeling of a marrow test...

"Come on then, let's head back home," suggested Sluice. Returning to their flat after weeks of absence would surely be a calming experience for Silver. Notwithstanding she could do with a rest herself; she wasn't just physically tired from the day's battles but mentally and emotionally exhausted from the revelations and attempts at keeping Silver's mood from turning. She wanted to sleep but didn't want to leave Silver unattended; perhaps Photon could occupy his attention for a while.

[color=#8b4513;]IC - Gadgeteer @ General Warner's house[/color]

"[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]The problem is that most people in government do not have the experience of fighting supervillains,[/font]" Gadgeteer told Lone, adding a dejected shrug for effect. It was good for this opportunity to show they were on the General's side, he thought, since this was a man prepared to imprison innocents if they objected to his methods of dealing with criminals. He turned to the General. After details of contact were provided, he said: "[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]Our team will use the next two days to prepare ourselves for the encounter. If you can provide any information about Baron Carchas' abilities it would be a help.[/font]" Viktor paused. He had suddenly become aware of an opportunity. "[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]General, given that Lone and I derive our strength from the armoured suits we wear and you are not averse to... circumventing legalities in the name of the greater good... I wonder if you could do us one more favour, to aid our preparation for the coming battle. I seem to recall reading that a villain who used an armoured suit - Dreadnought, I believe the alias was - was detained by the government some weeks ago. Since I am sure that the government has no use for the armour, I wonder if you could perhaps arrange for it to 'go missing' and end up in our possession?[/font]"

Viktor knew the odds were against him. There was a slim chance that the General would agree to this, or be able to pull it off even if he wanted to. Plus there was the risk of the General or Lone suspecting a link between himself and Dreadnought - if Saosin had been present he wouldn't have bothered; the hero's infallible memory might allow him to piece together the full picture. Ordinarily Viktor would resist the temptation to act on the opportunity, but weeks of struggling with a low-tech armoured battle suit and the stress of managing a haphazard team was getting to him...

OOC: Sorry for not posting here in a long time, it's just that I haven't found the strength to do this. Also is there any League business that 'Inferno' can go into?

IC:

"Why they stopped?" asked the Prime Minister. Unannounced to the people in the limo, up front was a man in cybernetic armor, and wielded a blade holstered in a sheath made out of a gun. "Get out of the way, or we will shoot!" ordered the turret operator on the first truck. Then the man on the road looked up at him and leaped up into the air, and unsheathed his sword and sliced the truck in half. (In the front)

"Fire!" They shot at him, but he moved fast and cut right through the defenses by slicing the men and destroying the trucks. "I think we should turn around." said the limo driver in panic. He kicked it in reverse and did a J-turn. He then sped off in the other direction hoping to get away from the terrorist.

"They are on the move." said the mysterious terrorist in his comm. The limo made it just two blocks from where the terrorist was. But another one was about to come on down on them. Literally.

OOC: I asked you to change his origin to something a little less Saturday morning cartoon than "fell into radiation with swords and a cat and got sword and cat powers". You haven'tI asked you to add a bit more to his backstory. You haven'tI can't actually see what changes you have made...

IC: [color=rgb(0,0,255);]"Home? ...... E-England, yes...." [/color]it took the psychic a few seconds to line up his definition of home to hers due to the cataclysmic nature of his living arrangements for the last seven years of his life; the last time he'd called anywhere home had been when he was still in school. Was his home now a flat on the other side of the world with two other superheroes? [color=rgb(0,0,255);]"I would like that"[/color] [color=rgb(0,128,0);]"Go on ahead, I will be ready to depart when you reach me" [/color]Esp's hologram opted to stay a few moments longer, discussing with Dr. Ostermann some kind of system link that would allow both parties to relay new information to the other instantly on Silver's condition, and any new advancements made on a cure. Before they got out of earshot Esp was explaining she had some kind of simulation program available they could test possible cures on, but after that it seemed to descend into incoherent techno-babble. Despite the fact they were leaving, Silver's mood still remained heavy. [color=rgb(0,0,255);]"You don't think Mentor's right, do you? That I belong.... in a place like this?" [/color]he didn't seem to consider the lab much more than a prison, meant to contain them so they couldn't hurt others... but in the psychic's case, every moment he spent in there was just minutes of his life wasting away. If no cure could be created, then he'd simply spend months in there before expiring, and achieve nothing...

@ Neya - The League's still fighting crime as always. There was a huge alien invasion five weeks ago (RPG-time) which the world has just about recovered from, though the aftermath did give the Coalition of Corruption time to rebuild itself into a more formidable threat again. There's a ton of specifics which I needn't go into really; you should be fine to create a character and hop into action somewhere.

[color=#0066cc;]IC - Sluice @ Dr. Ostermann's lab[/color]

"I don't think you belong here, and nor does Mentor," Sluice corrected him as they walked toward the exit. "It's just... the best place there is to help you. And Dr. Ostermann has what she needs, so there's no need for you to stay, Come on, don't dwell on it. Think about... think about the nice warm bed waiting for you back at our flat. It's been a stressful day for you, I know. We can shower, and sleep, and in the morning I'll make whatever you want for breakfast."

During the most depressing times in her life - her breakup with Midnight, the deaths of her grandparents - Sarah had found the small pleasures of life invaluable in helping her realise that her sadness was not absolute and that there was still cause to be happy. Of course, she'd never suffered as terrible a physical ailment as Silver was suffering now, but she hoped it would still apply...

OOC: Blast it! I feel like I've got TSTW! coming out my ears, and I still haven't managed to post in two weeks.

IC: (Loadstone)

The hall was bathed in a whitish-yellow glow. Loadstone halted the field just over everyone's heads, keeping Dragonfly grounded and forcing the Sharkmen to stoop or have their heads electrocuted. Having essentially robbed the Villains of their advantages, Loadstone held the field and nodded for the other Heroes to work their magic.

A volley of concentrated blasts of air assailed the Sharkmen closing in on X-Calibur, knocking several of them off their feet and sending them flying toward Dragonfly. Ultionis targeted the Sharkmen who remained standing, using his precise marksmanship to target the creatures' dull eyes.

OOC: I figure that we've got these playerless PCs hanging around, we might as well convert them to NPCs so we can keep going. At this point, H-D will be back when he gets back, and I get the feeling Snelly isn't coming back at all, as he hasn't even read the PM I sent him...It gives us a little more RPing freedom than sticking with our two characters and waiting for interaction.

IC: "Thinking of getting an upgrade?" Warner question, "Fine, I can probably arrange that. As for Carchas, well other than the fact that he's a bloody great shark, he has some psychic abilities. Enough telepathy to put thoughts in your head, its how he communicates generally. Telekinesis too, but limited. he can lift his own body mass, not much more."

A thrill of excitement passed through Viktor at the General's agreement. This whole endeavour suddenly seemed much more worthwhile.

Of course there was a minor caveat: he'd inadvertently promised that Lone would benefit from the armour too. He didn't want to share the secrets of his armoured battle suit - his true one, not the cobbled-together thing he was wearing now - but to refuse would be to draw suspicion. Perhaps he could persuade Lone to let him 'study' the Dreadnought suit first, giving him a chance to quietly remove the more complex and valuable aspects of its mechanics.

The more tactical side of his mind thought about Baron Carchas. Assuming that Madness stayed on the team for the duration, then they could match Carchas' psychic powers strength for strength. But Lady Hexas did have Killar Mari on her side too; there was a good chance she'd be brought along to the apparent breakout. Being outnumbered by telepaths was a very bad thing; Viktor resolved to discuss the issue with his teammates later and devise a countermeasure. For now though, he and Lone simply had to return to the League Jet and relay the revised plan.

The General relayed the line on which the heroes could contact him. Gadgeteer turned to Lone and spoke; though he needn't have, he didn't want the General to suspect they had a private method of communicating.

"[font="'lucida sans unicode', 'lucida grande', sans-serif;"]Well then, we should return to the others. Goodbye General. Good luck with your end of things.[/font]"

It sounded to Gadgeteer like the sort of thing a hero ought to say. Retracing their steps, so as not to set off any security systems, the pair left the General's house and began the walk back toward the League jet.

Dragonfly fired his wrist blasters at full strength to repel the oncoming Sharkmen. He felt pretty pleased at his innovative method of avoiding harm until he realised he'd just finished off the last of his living allies. An expression of dismay came over his features, though it was chased away by anger. He whirled around. There was a small tail built into the hindside of his armour; metal panels slid away to allow a missile to scream forth from it. It was about the thickness and length of a baseball bat; far too big for there to be any more tucked inside the armour. Though this was hardly reassuring since it was clearly powerful enough to eliminate the entire group in one blast.

X-Calibur had just gotten to his feet, stooping under the overhead electricity. "Shrink the field and bring it down!" He yelled at Loadstone. They had seconds...